The Gadfly is cognizant of the fact that President Obama has promised a full U.S. troop withdrawal by the end of 2014, however The Gadfly, given the opportunity, would gladly advise the President to shit or get off the pot and begin that withdrawal tomorrow. The United States is going on 13 years in that now stupid and useless fucking war, the longest war in U.S. history. If the Afghan government and military haven't gotten their shit together by now after years of U.S. advising and formal combat training of their troops, then they'll never be ready.

Seven more dead soldiers this week. Average age of 28. If we stick with Obama's timetable to wait until the end of 2014 for full U.S. military withdrawal, that translates to a hell of a lot more dead soldiers until that seminal event comes to pass. If The Gadfly's math is correct, and using a conservative estimate of 5 casualties per week, that equates to approximately another 325 unnecessary lost lives. That is unacceptable to The Gadfly, and even more importantly, it will be unacceptable to the families that will be having to deal with the loss of their loved one, should he/she have the misfortune to be one of those 325 destined to lose their lives as the government and the Pentagon dither on the withdrawal timetable.

There simply is no justification coherent or judicious enough in The Gadfly's view to warrant keeping our men and women military personnel in that theater of death and misery one single more day.

Bring them home now. Close the final chapter on that sad story of a conflict once and forever. Our troops have sacrificed enough for that cause, whatever it may have been or whatever it now is.

It's nothing short of a Flying Spaghetti Monster blessing that we have Comedy Central comedians and political cartoonists to inform us as to the facts surrounding the Affordable Care Act -- for we certainly cannot rely on the corporate owned, integrity compromised mainstream media to be up to that task.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Apparently Republicans have yet to learn the lesson, which has been taught to them multiple times the past several national election cycles, that popularity among GOP primary voters is not a measure of anything remotely resembling reality, either short term or long term. Remember how in 2012 every other week there was a new GOP front runner du jour - Bachmann, Santorum, Perry, Cain, Trump, Gingrich . . . etc.? GOP primary popularity does not necessarily translate to voting booth appeal in national elections.

Observe:

Raleigh, N.C. – PPP's newest national poll finds Ted Cruz is now the top choice of Republican primary voters to be their candidate for President in 2016. He leads the way with 20% to 17% for Rand Paul, 14% for Chris Christie, 11% for Jeb Bush, 10% each for Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan, 4% for Bobby Jindal, and 3% each for Rick Santorum and Scott Walker.

Let's keep in mind -- that 20% number is, in all likelihood, primarily made up of rabid Teahadists. And coincidentally - and on an even more interesting note - that percentage number just also happens to closely conform to the national, overall favorability rating of the Tea Party themselves.

The only reason The Gadfly is posting about this poll is because it simply underscores the psychopathic disposition of your average primary Republican voter in this day and age. Think about it - all it took for Ted Cruz to vault to the top of the list as favored 2016 Presidential candidate in the minds of the GOP base was for him to orchestrate a phony filibuster calling for de-funding of the ACA, and yammering ad nauseum on the Senate floor for 21 hours about pirates and Darth Vader and Green Eggs & Ham. Then, once his spectacle came to a magnanimous end, he turned around and voted for cloture on the very same bill that he had just "filibustered." If that was all that was required to make him instant Presidential material in the eyes of the GOP base, don't you think that is setting the standard pretty fucking low?

So yeah -- tell The Gadfly that there isn't some form of mental instability issues going on with people who find Ted Cruz to be a quantitatively qualified candidate to lead this country forward going in to the next decade.

Andrew Sullivan nails the reality which constitutes the conservative's hatred of the Affordable Care Act, derisively called "Obamacare" by right wingers, which underscores their ignorance of the fact that the plan is nearly identical to a plan that came out of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in 1989 and also nearly identical to the plan that Willard Romney, then governor of Massachusetts, signed in to law in 2006.

Take it away Andrew:

The thing that staggers me about the Republican hatred of this law is its abstract quality. They never address the real problem of our massively inefficient private healthcare market, which is a huge burden on the economy. They never address how to help the millions of uninsured adults get the care all human beings need. They appear to regard a Heritage Foundation, free-market-designed, private healthcare exchange system as some kind of communist plot. They do not seem to believe there is any pressing problem at all. And they have nothing constructive to offer.

This is not about Obamacare. It is not even about politics. It is about a form of revolt against the very country they live in.

Yup -- that pretty much sums it up. Imagine -- here we are in the 21st century -- we as a people and nation have put a man on the moon. We are exploring the surface of Mars. We have a space station orbiting the planet and can transfer astronaut/scientists back and forth from earth to the space station in spaceship taxi style.

On the negative side -- we can spend trillions on bloody wars of choice. We can give billions of taxpayer dollars in the form of welfare subsidies to large corporations who consistently report record profits. We can waste billions more purchasing weapons of mass destruction from the military industrial complex conglomerates -- in many cases weapons that are never used and simply sit around collecting dust and rusting away.

And The Gadfly swears -- he is maddeningly sick and goddamn tired about the conservative's ranting about "rugged individualism" and "Murrikkan exceptionalism." What's so fucking exceptional about a wealthy country that turns it's back on it's most vulnerable people's need for basic human dignity and right to some semblance of quality of life? What is so exceptional about a country that has one of the highest child poverty rates in the developed world? What is so exceptional about a country that has the highest first day infant mortality rate in the industrialized world? And . . . sigh . . . what is so fucking exceptional about a country that has the highest rate (by leaps and bounds) of gun-related killings in the developed world?

And as far as that "rugged individualism" high school jock, macho bullshit goes --- this is not Dodge City in the Wyatt Earp days of the 1800's jackasses. Jeebus fucking kripes conservatives --- grow up will you?

The Gadfly does not hate his country. But The Gadfly is not sorry to say that he is greatly disenchanted with his country, and specifically a specific portion of it's peoples, and honestly feels at times that his country is headed toward the same fate as another empire that once existed in human history if they do not change their attitudes and their ways of looking at and integrating with the rest of the world. If you know your world history, you know exactly what empire The Gadfly is referring to.

Nonetheless -- The Gadfly speaks out on these issues that he is compassionate about for he feels that silence is complicity in the wrongheadedness and ignorance that is trying to bully it's way into the national psyche. If we don't stand up to this form of callous philistinism, then we have no right to bemoan the consequences of such inaction, which if the past history of these types of fascistic movements are any evidence, will not be benevolent in nature nor heartening for the prospect that the following words will ever have meaningful relevancy again:

. . . all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Bottom line is that every American who truly gives a shit about this country's democracy and it's survival needs to make a choice as to how they want their children's and grandchildren's future quality of life, liberty and happiness to be. And once you have made that choice - then stand up and fight for those ideals.

O'Reilly: Uninsured Must Get Out Of The "Crack House" To Sign Up For Obamacare

Yeah O'Reilly and Dobbs -- that's the way to draw people to your political movement and party. Broad brush label 40 million uninsured Americans as crack heads. Bravo! You fucking assholes!!

This is why The Gadfly speaks up about these monsters. These arrogant boors carry so much hate and vindictiveness in their views of their fellow Americans and that hatred carries over in to their legislative policies when they run Congress. They have to be stood up to lest they gain complete governing power and turn this country in to an oligarchic, theocratic third world banana republic.

Speaking of crap that makes The Gadfly want to stick his head in a wood chipper:

Here Are the GOP's Debt-Ceiling Demands, and They Are Insane

"Delay Obamacare and enact the entire minority party agenda or else ..."

In 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling.How is that any different than what the Republican Party is doing today? people all over cable news keep asking.

This is how. Obama's vote was a silly symbolic vote that had no consequence, but, crucially, it was also supposed to be a silly symbolic vote that had no consequence. Like many minority parties before them, Democrats used the debt ceiling to make a stink about fiscal policy, but they didn't try to hold the White House—or the international financial community—hostage.

This time is different. National Reviewsnagsthe details of the House's debt-ceiling demands, and once you get through them, you'll be surprised they didn't ask for free ice cream, a lifetime pass to Disneyland, and a bill to rename the capitol "The Reagan Dome."

Read The Atlantic article (click link above) and check out the list of ransom demands that the Republicans are waving in Obama's face over their manufactured debt ceiling debacle.

The Gadfly just has to laugh at this shit, because the ransom demands, for all intent and purpose, are nothing more than the very same platform that Willard Romney and Paul Ryan ran on in opposition to Obama in the 2012 Presidential race. And we all know how that turned out don't we? To put it bluntly -- Americans outright rejected Romney/Ryan and the GOP's assault on the American middle class and poor, while in contrast, demonstrating generous fealty to the 1% elites. To clarify further -- Four (4) million more Americans rejected the conservative candidates and their conservative agenda. They lost. End of fucking story!

Ultimately -- as much as The Gadfly is disappointed about some of Obama's policies and decisions, in this particular battle with the sociopaths in the Tea Party - The Gadfly is hoping beyond hope that the President drops his capitulating nice guy routine - just for once - and flips Ted Cruz the bird and triple-dog dares the slimy little Texas lizard to follow through on his blustering threats to shut down the government and cause the U.S. to default on it's debt.

At long last -- let us see what kind of courage and balls Cruz and his pack of yapping ankle biter Teahadist pals truly possess.

Friday, September 27, 2013

The House action that stripped food stamp funding from a massive farm bill would threaten vital assistance for about 5,000 military families, mostly from the junior enlisted ranks, Pentagon officials said Friday.

A Department of Agriculture report last year showed that more than 5,000 of the 48 million Americans receiving Supplementary Nutritional Assistance Program (food stamps) listed their employment status as "active duty military," the Pentagon officials said.

"Military members who receive SNAP tend to be made up of members in junior pay grades with larger than average household sizes," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen, a Defense Department spokesman.

The 5,000 military families receiving food stamps was a tiny percentage of the 48 million recipients nationwide, but it was a major increase over the previous year when the Department of Agriculture reported that only 1,000 recipients listed "active duty military" as their employment status.

In addition, the Defense Commissary Agency reported that food stamps were being redeemed at base commissaries at a record pace.

Last year, $99 million in food stamps were cashed in at bases by military families, disabled vets and others with military identification, and more than $53 million in food stamps were cashed in this year through June, according to Defense Commissary Agency data provided to the Huffington Post.

The concerns over the threat of a food stamp funding cutoff were raised by the 218-208 vote in the House Thursday that passed a $500 billion farm bill that stripped out $80 billion in SNAP funding. It was the first time since 1973 that a farm bill failed to join farm subsidies and food stamp funding.

Apparently our troops with large families, and who's base military pay is insufficient to meet their basic living needs aren't worthy of a little assistance, yet the GOP certainly made sure in their Farm bill that the welfare subsidies for the big, billion dollar agriculture corporations remained untouched. Shows you who they really serve doesn't it?

Tell The Gadfly again dear conservative readers, how it is that your party's governing priorities aren't completely fucked up and toxic to America.

A National Rifle Association (NRA) lobbyist this week lashed out at critics who called on NBC Sports to cancel his hunting program after it aired an episode where he shot an elephant in the face.

By Friday, almost 50,000 people had reacted to this week's episode of Under Wild Skies -- which features gun lobbyist Tony Makris shooting an elephant in the face and then drinking champagne -- by asking NBC Sports to cancel the NRA-sponsored show.

Just so we're straight -- The Gadfly, once again for the record, is not anti-gun. He is anti-stupidity with a gun and anti-asshole with a gun. There is no ambiguity in that declaration.

The Gadfly just finds it fascination in observing how some of these NRA goons simply are incapable of realizing how fucking soulless and prick-faced they come off to normal people when they are attempting to defend their indefensible words and actions.

And while Mr. NRA Prickface guy was correct in stating that some indigenous peoples in certain countries do eat elephant meat - it is a rarefied event. What he didn't say was that fact, along with poaching and illegal hunting in the elephant's natural habitats, has decimated the elephant populations in many countries to the point of near extinction.

All of that aside though, what kind of monster shoots a beautiful creature like that - in the face - and then gleefully celebrates by drinking champagne?

The Gadfly thinks Mr. NRA Prickface guy ought to go on a hunting expedition with a drunken Dick Cheney - - so that he himself might discover exactly what it feels like to get a load of lead buckshot to the face.

Oh -- and it goes without saying that when you are reduced to painting your detractors as sympathizers of Hitler's Nazi ideology for their criticism of you, just admit that you already have completely and miserably lost the debate.

Charlie Pierce at Esquire Magazine takes a couple of other journalists to task for their views that perhaps it might be a good idea to appease the temper tantrum throwing Teahadist radicals in Congress and let them proceed with their most bestest plan of shutting down the government and defaulting on the U.S. government's credit by refusing to raise the debt ceiling because they can't have their way:

Todd Purdum takes to the pixels of Tiger Beat On The Potomacto make this case. Ezra Klein also seems to be aboard, too. These are both pretty smart guys, so why they've decided to believe this nonsense ees-a-puzzlement to me. Let us get the goopy humanity stuff out of the way first. Both a government shutdown and/or a debt-ceiling catastrophe will have savage real-world consequences for millions of people who do not live in Washington and who do not appear on panel shows, and who already are making due with the cuts that came from sequestration, the previous attempt to shame the inhabitants of the monkeyhouse into a return to sanity. How's that working out for everyone? Now, granted, the stakes are immeasurably higher, but what leads anyone to believe that even being blamed for inflicting incalculable pain on millions of people is going to result in the kind of national revulsion that will cause the Republicans to come back to the pack?

Frankly, The Gadfly has to say that he is, albeit reluctantly, on board with the idea of letting the GOP shoot the hostage (the government and the U.S. economy) in the head. For one thing - it is the only hostage they have. Once they shoot that hostage, they no longer have anything to leverage their position from. Secondly, the American people aren't going to blame the deceased hostage with the bloody bullet hole in his head for the consequences that will follow - they're going to lay the vast majority of the blame squarely at the feet of the corporate owned GOP and their rabies infected attack dog - the Tea Party.

Sure - Pierce is correct in stating that the government shutdown and default on the debt "will have savage real-world consequences for millions of people" and The Gadfly acknowledges that is not a lighthearted prospect to ponder.

However, as The Gadfly noted in a previous post, "there comes a point when you realize that extraordinary circumstances, while envisaging the gravest of consequences if no action is taken at all, must be addressed with purposeful and extraordinary undertaking."

To put it bluntly, The Gadfly is convinced at this point that the only thing that will prod the American people out of their mass-media, consumer culture induced stupor, and open their eyes to the life affecting mischief that these foolish, radical Tea Party lunatics are engaging in, is some form of severe and extended economic pain.

And make no bones about it -- this pain will transverse the entire spectrum of economic class in the country. For if America defaults on it's debt, you dear readers are going to see a world-wide convulsive effect that will, in essence, blow the American economic ship/juggernaut right out of the proverbial fucking water. And when that happens, the stock market will implode, great swaths of wealth will be obliterated across America, a depression ensues and not only are Joe and Jane Middle-Class going to be royally fucked for years, maybe decades to come, but so will be the majority of institutional Wall Street investors - the monetary lifeblood of the market.

And should that scenario come to pass dear readers, The Gadfly does not consider it a far stretch of the imagination to believe that the Koch Brothers and their ilk will finally and ruefully get the class war that they have been agitating for with their greedy and oppressive economic policies and legislative manipulation and political meddling. Only The Gadfly does not think that the outcome of that war will be as favorable to the Kochs and their industrialist pals as they might believe -- and The Gadfly makes that observation with the historical recollection of Benito Mussolini's demise on his mind.

Soon we shall see how this life and death Kabuki dance will be played out. The Gadfly is not convinced that the oblivious Teahadists possess the cognitive thinking abilities required for them to reflect inward on their behavior and so the odds are firmly in favor of them going forward with their murder-suicide plan for the country. The Gadfly would like to believe his analysis is just dead wrong and that these selfish, immature, and destructive people will come to their senses and sufficiently reform themselves and get back to work at compromising with their political rivals enough to move the country forward and do the best by the most American people. But sadly, the evidence just simply does not exist to support that Utopian scenario and thus are the grounds for The Gadfly's resigned pessimism.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

It's priceless and be sure to watch both parts. Oh - and btw - it is simply amazing how Stewart manages to inject some reality and fact based information in to his performance and one realizes how truly sad it is that we have to rely on comedians instead of the traditional media to correct the conservative's bullshit lying.

MSNBC's Chris Hayes explains in clear, unambiguous form, the FACTS about the ACA (aka "Obamacare"), and provides supporting evidence that cannot be blustered away by the charlatanism of Ted Cruz and his creepy sugar daddies - The Koch Brothers.

The FACTS that Hayes highlights about the Affordable Care Act absolutely terrify the right wing conservatives - because aside from the fact that they despise anything that Obama does, regardless of it's rightness or effectiveness, they cannot stand the thought that the peasantry who will benefit the most and have the quality of their lives enhanced by the ACA - will come to love the program (not at all unlike Social Security and Medicare) and will give all credit to the crafty, Kenyan, commie Negro and by proxy erode even further the ability of the Republican party to be a functional and competitive political force in American politics in the foreseeable future.

Just once The Gadfly would like to see the GOP stand up for the American people instead of the elite corporate overlords. Just once - and The Gadfly would shut his piehole about this shit for good if it came to pass! But alas -- we know that is not going to happen. The sugar daddy industrialists have a firm, throttling grip on the GOP infrastructure throat, primarily via their creation and machinations of guiding the Tea Party takeover of the House caucus.

What it boils down to is the reality that the demographics writing has been on the wall for quite awhile now and therefore the sane wing of the Republican party knows that their destiny as a viable political counterpart to the Democrat open tent framework is in great jeopardy due to the inflexible crudeness, spitefulness, xenophobia and governing incompetence of the Teahadists. The GOP establishment honchos are facing their Waterloo as a political party -- but what distinguishes this conflict from a historical context, is the fact that their antagonists are members of their own caucus. It's going to be a bloodbath at some point -- it has to be.

Believe it or not dear readers, there are other people in this country - folks with a much broader audience than The Gadfly's congruous disciples - who are just as pessimistic about the future of America and representative democracy's long term survival - and arguably, even more so than The Gadfly is:

Charlie Pierce from Esquire Magazine:

...the story is basically the same -- simply, that there is no pile of money anywhere in the country, no matter how large or small, and no matter how vital to the people who were depending upon it, to which the grifters in the financial-services "industry" do not feel entitled as fuel for their unquenchable greed. They will destroy lives because they have contempt for those lives. They will wreck people because those people are wreckable, and they will do it laughing.

...realize what a surface sham this democracy has become for the people who need it the most.

Pierce links to a Matt Taibbi article which basically affirms that which The Gadfly has known since the days the late Great George Carlin told him so -- namely that Wall Street and the people who populate it and engineer it's monetary machinations -- are basically willfully raping the middle class in order to expand their own wealth and are intent on destroying every single local, state and federal program that has ever been designed that had the noble and moral goal of enhancing the overall quality of life for as many Americans who were willing to go along with the programs, work hard and play honestly by the rules. They want it all for themselves and fuck the rest of America. Great American patriots huh? Honorable businessmen huh? The fuck they are.

The Gadfly seriously would caution you before reading Taibbi's piece -- for if you are a person like The Gadfly who places fundamental value in time honored personal traits such as fairness, integrity, honesty, philanthropy, and humane compassion -- then beware, because when you read how the 1% elites have plundered the meager savings and benefits of the middle class over the past 30 or so years, and continue to do so today, just because they can and not because they need to, it will either make you cry or make you extremely and blood curdling enraged. Which, in The Gadfly's humble view, is not a bad thing per se -- for it is a simple and authentically normal human reaction to being made aware of great injustice and malicious cruelty.

Here's an excerpt from Taibbi's piece:

The state's workers, in other words, were being forced to subsidize their own political disenfranchisement, coughing up at least $200 million to members of a group that had supported anti-labor laws. Later, when Edward Siedle, a former SEC lawyer, asked Raimondo in a column for Forbes.com how much the state was paying in fees to these hedge funds, she first claimed she didn't know. Raimondo later told the Providence Journal she was contractually obliged to defer to hedge funds on the release of "proprietary" information, which immediately prompted a letter in protest from a series of freaked-out interest groups. Under pressure, the state later released some fee information, but the information was originally kept hidden, even from the workers themselves. "When I asked, I was basically hammered," says Marcia Reback, a former sixth-grade schoolteacher and retired Providence Teachers Union president who serves as the lone union rep on Rhode Island's nine-member State Investment Commission. "I couldn't get any information about the actual costs."

This is the third act in an improbable triple-fucking of ordinary people that Wall Street is seeking to pull off as a shocker epilogue to the crisis era. Five years ago this fall, an epidemic of fraud and thievery in the financial-services industry triggered the collapse of our economy. The resultant loss of tax revenue plunged states everywhere into spiraling fiscal crises, and local governments suffered huge losses in their retirement portfolios – remember, these public pension funds were some of the most frequently targeted suckers upon whom Wall Street dumped its fraud-riddled mortgage-backed securities in the pre-crash years.

Today, the same Wall Street crowd that caused the crash is not merely rolling in money again but aggressively counterattacking on the public-relations front. The battle increasingly centers around public funds like state and municipal pensions. This war isn't just about money. Crucially, in ways invisible to most Americans, it's also about blame. In state after state, politicians are following the Rhode Island playbook, using scare tactics and lavishly funded PR campaigns to cast teachers, firefighters and cops – not bankers – as the budget-devouring boogeymen responsible for the mounting fiscal problems of America's states and cities.

In a nutshell, they are blind stealing middle class American's pensions and they are doing it brazenly, gleefully and without fear of repercussion.

The Gadfly does not exaggerate when he tells you dear reader that his entire body was shaking in profound rage after he read Taibbi's article to the extent that he re-read it a second time just to ensure that his eyes and cognitive faculties had not failed him and deceived him in to believing that his fellow countrymen could be such vile and intrinsically evil mother fuckers. But sadly - there it was.

Sigh . . . . The Gadfly is no longer joking when he states that if there is to be any meaningful change in America -- change that unequivocally reverses the toxic injury that Wall Street, and the overlords whom they service, have inflicted upon the country's democratic institutions and the American people -- a people who, lamentably, were looking to the money changers to safeguard everybody's best interests only to be betrayed, then that change must resolutely consider the option of life imprisonment and the death penalty for the corporate crimes which underlie the economic carnage that they have wrought upon their fellow country men, and for which they are presently utilizing wealth and power to evade retributive justice.

Yes -- The Gadfly is fully aware that support for the death penalty is typically not an issue at the top of your average progressive's priorities list, however there comes a point when you realize that extraordinary circumstances, while envisaging the gravest of consequences if no action is taken at all, must be addressed with purposeful and extraordinary undertaking - for the message sent must be unambiguous that these crimes and this form of calculative corruption will not be tolerated an iota more. And the penalty is ultimate in nature.

That's all The Gadfly has to say on this matter for the time being. Think about it though dear readers and make up your own mind about things. Hopefully enough people will begin speaking out about this depravity and it will be a large and powerful enough collective voice for the elites to take notice and put the specter of fear in whatever manifestation that constitutes their rapacious souls.

Perhaps if the GOP put as much effort in to working with Obama on fixing the economy and putting Americans back to work as they do in trying to deny a long neglected segment of their fellow citizenry access to affordable health care through childish tactics and political theatrics, this might not be such a problem:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) is cutting orders it places with suppliers this quarter and next to address rising inventory the company flagged in last month’s earnings report.

Last week, an ordering manager at the company’s Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters described the pullback in an e-mail to a supplier, who said others got similar messages. “We are looking at reducing inventory for Q3 and Q4,” said the Sept. 17 e-mail, which was reviewed by Bloomberg News.

U.S. inventory growth at Wal-Mart outstripped sales gains in the second quarter at a faster rate than at the retailer’s biggest rivals. Merchandise has been piling up because consumers have been spending less freely than Wal-Mart projected, and the company has forfeited some sales because it doesn’t have enough workers in stores to keep shelves adequately stocked.

The Gadfly is not in any way an apologist for Walmart, but even the gazillionaire Walton family members at some point have to recognize the stark reality that their chosen form of organized worship, consumerism, will wither on the vine if there isn't a stable supply of working people with the means to purchase their increasingly imported and shitty products.

Money it's a crime

Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie

Money so they say

Is the root of all evil today

But if you ask for a rise it's no surprise that they're giving none away

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Oh fer flying fuck's sake - if The Gadfly didn't know any better, he would conjecture that this posting from Larry Klayman today and Ted "Tailgunner" Cruz's solo circle jerk in the Senate yesterday, are strong indicators that the Teahadists have finally stared collectively in to the abyss of their own psychotic soul (or that dark, putrid, shriveled thing that they mistake for a soul) and frankly at this point, it is quite clear that they have gone off the deep, deep end en masse.

Last Wednesday, the great usurper, Barack Hussein Obama, after having been indicted by an Ocala, Florida citizens' grand jury, was convicted by a people's court of defrauding the American people and Floridians by proffering them with a fake birth certificate. See www.citizensgrandjury.com.

As readers of this column and www.wnd.com know too well, Obama is not a natural born citizen eligible to be president of the United States, as he was not born in this country to two American citizen parents. However, to justify his fraud and his elections to the highest office in the land, and after years of inquiry, in 2011 the Obama White House posted on its website a birth certificate purporting to show him having been born in Hawaii. The problem is however, according to forensic experts, the birth certificate is altered and forged.

The day of reckoning has come. Obama, having failed to plead in response to the indictment that was served upon him, waived his right to a jury trial. Thumbing his nose at We the People, as the citizens' prosecutor, I appeared before a citizens' court judge and presented evidence from Cold Case Posse investigator Michael Zullo showing that Obama tricked voters into electing him in 2008 and 2012. As a result, the citizens' judge found him guilty on two counts of falsifying information to federal and state election officials. He was thus sentenced to the maximum prison term for these offenses of 10 years, and ordered to immediately surrender himself into the custody of the citizens of the United States and Florida.

The Gadfly advises you dear reader, that if you truly want a hearty, mirthful laugh fest, then be sure to read the whole Klayman article. Then read it a second and a third time just because it is that damn hilarious and is more than worth the effort of repeat readings.

Apparently Larry Klayman, who has been bouncing around right wingnut conspiracy circles since the days when Hillary Clinton orchestrated the murder of Vince Foster, congregated with some of his Florida Teahadist friends (in exchange for a free Grand Slam breakfast at Denny's no doubt), declared themselves prosecutor, jury and judge all in one fell swoop, and have convicted the crafty Kenyan, commie Negro of the crime of squatting in Larry and his friend's White House and pursuant to such a hideous transgression have sentenced the crafty Kenyan, commie Negro to 10 years in a prison to be named later.

Subsequently - Mahatma Larry (read the article) and his friends have bravely volunteered to go to Washington D.C., deliver his court's verdict and take legal (or something resembling thereof) custody of the crafty Kenyan, commie Negro, and by virtue of such action, saving America from the "Muslim, socialist, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, anti-white, pro-illegal immigrant, pro-radical gay and lesbian agenda - among other outrages," (LOL).

Now - it goes without saying that The Gadfly would gleefully dip in to his precious savings account in order to purchase a plane ticket to D.C. to watch Judge Larry and his Kangaroo Court officers deliver their court verdict to The President and attempt to take physical custody of him. But call it a crazy hunch -- somehow The Gadfly speculates that the United States Secret Service might be a bit unimpressed by and skeptical of the motives of a bunch of bug-eyed, Florida red-neck crackers directly invading the physical space of the POTUS, and screeching a list of loony toons charges at him which are being read off the Slams page of a greasy, dog-eared Denny's menu.

Anyhow, the hope is that these clowns continue with this childishness -- the Tea Party's approval ratings are hovering around Dick Cheney territory, meaning as low as a snakes scrotum sac, and that is pressuring the sane wing of the GOP to regret allowing such a vindictive, sniveling bunch of whiners to hijack their party and their platform to begin with. So, as far as The Gadfly is concerned - more power to the Birthers and the Cruz Teahadists. You go kids!!

Time will tell if The Gadfly's observations have any basis in astuteness or not. Regardless, The Gadfly is indubitably convinced that the whole grotesque freak show is going to be entertaining, if nothing else.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

It appears that some in the GOP, those few who are still somewhat of sane mind and manner, are beginning to question the motives and the intellectual integrity of the creepy Tea Party Senator from Texas, "Tailgunner" Ted Cruz -- to which The Gadfly blithely responds, "welcome to the club - what the fuck took you so long?":

Cruz: Well, look. There are lots of folks in Washington who choose to throw rocks, and I’m not going to reciprocate. I’m not going to do likewise. Listen, let me tell you about a broader problem. A broader problem is that we have got career politicians in both parties in Washington who aren’t listening to the American people. I spent the entire month of August traveling the country speaking to people, and the American people are hurting because Obamacare isn’t working.

This guy is one of the most cunningly snide political snakes to come around in a very long time. Just watch that video clip of his Fox interview with Chris Wallace and tell The Gadfly that that man is not a treacherous, and detestable freak of duplicity.

Notice how he snuck in that that dump-truck load of bullshit line about Obamacare not working at the end of his smirking and smug response to Wallace.

Gee Ted - would that by chance be the same "Obamacare" that is still in it's infancy stages and which the vast majority of it's major provisions have even yet to be implemented?

If any of The Gadfly's conservative friends can coherently (there's that key word again - huh?) explain how a program that has yet to even get off the ground could be hurting Americans across the country for the past two months, thus qualifying it as a political cause celebre justifying shutting down the U.S. government and defaulting on the nation's credit, then The Gadfly is all ears. Lay it on the line baby - The Gadfly is a big boy and can take the demonstrable truth -- providing that is what will be provided to support your position.

And as if Senator Tailgunner's juvenile threat to turn off the electricity in Washington wasn't sufficient enough to permanently discredit him, and earn him a big steaming pile of shame and ridicule heaped upon his pointy little head, he's now threatening to defund the United States military:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sunday warned Senate Republicans that refusing to filibuster a bill that defunds President Barack Obama's health care reform law "is a vote for Obamacare," and he also advised House Republicans to "shut down the military" if they had to.

"If Harry Reid kills the bill in the Senate, the House should hold its ground, and should begin passing smaller continuing resolutions, one department at a time," Cruz explained. "It should start with a continuing resolution focused on the military."

"Send it over, see if Harry Reid is willing to shut down the military," he quipped.

Wow! Just fucking wow!! Threatening to put the security of the entire nation at risk just because you cannot have your way on a piece of legislation you don't like has got to be the pinnacle of irresponsibility - and more appropriately, in The Gadfly's humble view - sedition.

The Gadfly is all for robust political debate and believes that if we are going to be stuck with the two-party system that we have, then it is probably a good idea that there be some measure of parity between the two parties so that one party does not become perennially more power entrenched than the other. But when The Gadfly hears shit like the ominous bile spewing forth from this nasty little toad's mouth, and nobody in his caucus stands up to denounce him, he wonders if it might not be such a bad idea if the Republican party be relegated to minority party status, across all three branches of government, for a couple of decades, or at least until they cleanse the cancer that is the Teahadist party from their ranks and send those idiotic anarchists back to the political fringes whence they oozed.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that the US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating an atom bomb over North Carolina that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that devastated Hiroshima.

The document, obtained by the investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act, gives the first conclusive evidence that the US was narrowly spared a disaster of monumental proportions when two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, North Carolina on 23 January 1961. The bombs fell to earth after a B-52 bomber broke up in mid-air, and one of the devices behaved precisely as a nuclear weapon was designed to behave in warfare: its parachute opened, its trigger mechanisms engaged, and only one low-voltage switch prevented untold carnage.

Each bomb carried a payload of 4 megatons – the equivalent of 4 million tons of TNT explosive. Had the device detonated, lethal fallout could have been deposited over Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and as far north as New York city – putting millions of lives at risk.

Though there has been persistent speculation about how narrow the Goldsboro escape was, the US government has repeatedly publicly denied that its nuclear arsenal has ever put Americans' lives in jeopardy through safety flaws. But in the newly-published document, a senior engineer in the Sandia national laboratories responsible for the mechanical safety of nuclear weapons concludes that "one simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe".

This frightening incident occurred about a year prior to The Gadfly's birth. As such, and pondering the consequences had the bomb detonated, it truly causes The Gadfly to wonder now as to whether he owes his mere, unassuming existence to "one simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch."

So much shit to ponder about present doings in the world and now they toss this irradiated bone to The Gadfly to chew on.

The Gadfly fancies himself a fair-to-middling bard when it comes to the science of mocking the blind-staggering lunacy of right wing conservatism.

However, The Gadfly bows down and bent knee and ever so humbly smooches the loafers of the king of mockery, Stephen Colbert. Watch as Colbert takes on the foolishness of the right wingers and their insipid and childish little war against Obamacare:

Friday, September 20, 2013

Republicans' obsession with overturning ObamaCare is getting sillier and more dangerous at the same time. Now that they've failed to kill the law every way the rules allow — in Congress, the Supreme Court and in a presidential election — the opponents are taking hostages and, in effect, threatening to shoot them if they don't get their way.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, the hostages are the federal government and the U.S. economy.

While the deferential editorial board folks at USA Today, who it should be noted - are usually mainstream conservative in their predilections, don't have much of a stomach for employing the dreaded 'T' word to describe the conservative's and GOP's tactics here, The Gadfly isn't quite as docile. Let us not mince words or meaning -- it is pure and simply economic Terrorism.

The key passage in the editorial excerpt above, in bold for your convenience dear reader, truly highlights just how destructively radical these people have become. As that passage notes, they have "failed to kill the law every way the rules allow." And not just have they miserably failed only once, but 40 FUCKING times!!

And now, apparently they have tired of playing by the rules and continually losing, therefore it's time to cheat, connive, sabotage, deceive, lie and if by doing so it destroys the country in the process - so be it.

The Gadfly supposes he should be somewhat heartened that some of the moderate conservatives are beginning to realize the horror of and association with their Frankenstein creation in the form of the Tea Party, however it is cold comfort in knowing that there is just enough gelatinous goop in the establishment GOP's spine for them to fear slapping down the Teahadists and allowing the insane bastards to proceed with their gutless little murder/suicide temper tantrum.

Most think it's a long shot that Senate Democrats will vote to defund Obamacare, even after the House approved a defund measure Friday, but at least one congressional Republican is expecting some divine intervention.

"I think there are senators who are going to find Jesus and do the right thing," Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) told CNN's Jake Tapper on Friday.

Hmmm . . . . The Gadfly quite clearly remembers his Sunday school classes and bible teachings from when he was a wee lad, but for the life of him cannot recall any of the Christ's teachings which openly advocated for denying poor people and children affordable health care and food.

The Gadfly is quite convinced that were the Jesus Christ that the Gadfly read about in the Bible to return today, he would take one look at the conservative/Teabagger movement and place a quick call upstairs to his old man with a request to reserve a luxury suite at Lucky Lucifer's Red Hot Resort & Casino for every single one of the heartless and cruel bastards - johnny-on-the-spot.

Luke 6:20-21 Then he looked up at his disciples and said: 'Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

If The Gadfly's interpretation of that quote is anything close to being reasonable, then that means that there's a whole lot of mother fucking, wealthy, hateful, selfish, cruel and just downright ignorant sons of bitches who have got a one-way punched bus ticket to Hades awaiting them once they are ready to clock out of their miserable, godforsaken existence in this world.

The Gadfly is pretty sure these stupid fuckheads are going to do it. They are actually and finally going to pull the trigger of the .357 Magnum that is presently pointed at their own, and by cursed proxy, the rest of the nation's temple:

The problem comes in No. 4. Boehner isn't going to simply shrug, say he tried, and bring the Senate bill to the floor. He'll shrug, say he tried, and tell his members that they should let him bring the Senate bill to the floor. He'll say it's because they need to save their fire for the debt ceiling fight, where they can force the White House to delay Obamacare for a year by threatening to trigger a global financial crisis. In fact, this is already the message he's delivering to his members.

The Gadfly believes that it is way beyond safe at this point to unambiguously postulate that when one party of a two-party political system is openly advocating for triggering a global financial crisis, and by virtue of such, consigning the nation's tepid recovery from one of the worst economic periods in history to the shitcan of no return -- just because they don't want more of their fellow Americans to have access to affordable health care, then that party is wholly and indubitably batshit fucking, mindnumbingly, horrifyingly goddamned insane.

Is it any wonder the late, great George Carlin gave up on having any hope for a positive outcome of this nation's destiny quite some time ago? He saw the writing on the wall and the coming of these Tea Party jackals way before anyone else did:

The Gadfly, sadly, is beginning to see Carlin's point of view much more clearly these days. The Gadfly wonders if he can ever bring himself to that penultimate apex of just infinitely not caring about America's future any more.

Dunno' - but one thing is for certain -- the conservative Republicans and the Teabaggers sure are paving the way for that decision to be made with a great deal less angst and fear.

Ionia residents James Pullum, 43, and Robert Taylor, 56, were pronounced dead at Sparrow Ionia Hospital soon after they engaged in a shootout with each other, according to the Ionia Department of Public Safety.

An initial police investigation showed the men turned into the car wash's parking lot after a road rage incident, authorities said. They reportedly exited their vehicles, drew handguns and exchanged fire.

Oh - and just to dig the irony dagger a bit deeper into the gun goon guy psyche, The Gadfly is wondering how it is that that wonderful NRA meme of "only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun" is coherently explained in this situation? Presumably, since both men were issued conceal/carry permits sanctioned by their state, it stands to reason that they were both good guys, for if either or both were bad guys, then either one or both should not have been issued said permit. Right?

Jeebus - this country is so fucked if this madness is allowed to perpetuate, which, if the quantity of dimwits that are currently running things in Congress isn't abated, is pretty much a given.

Therefore, as it is highly unlikely Americans will learn any lessons from this stuff (for if no lessons were learned when a schoolroom full of innoncent babies had their brains and guts splattered all over kingdom come, then you can presume the same for succeeding gun-goonery incidents), in the not too distant future, as historians are sifting through the rubble of what once was the Great American experiment, evidence will surface providing the rest of humanity with a glimpse at how such a proud and powerful nation could so quickly devolve in to a third world, banana republic, and ultimately, failed empire.

And it will come to pass that this story posted here, and many, many more like it - past and yet to come - will be an integral element of that colossal body of evidence.

The Gadfly is back on the wingnuttia tracking beat after a grueling week of studying, taking and passing his first of three industry exams for his new career path. Glory be to unshakable faith in the generous reward granting prowess of the divinely inimitable Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

The Gadfly could demur and blame this posting on general laziness .. but it ain't worth it ... it's better this way ...... oh -- and fuck you to every sonofabitch in my life who told me I couldn't do it.

Friday, September 13, 2013

This is why we cannot have nice things in this country. And by nice things, The Gadfly is referring to a safe society. A sane society. A less fearful society. A society more trusting and humane towards one another. A society with a viable and enduring future . . . . :

Two men heading to Appleton's downtown farmers market with AR-15 rifles slung over their shoulders and handguns in holsters swiftly attracted the attention of police officers last weekend.

Now, they're attracting attention across the Internet, with some gun rights advocates expressing outrage that the pair were held at gunpoint and handcuffed, while others voice frustration at what they consider a foolish and dangerous stunt.

Yes - because lord knows, that is the dream of every man, woman and child in America, to be able to stroll through the local Farmer's Market on a lazy Sunday afternoon, checking the skin firmness of the most recent crop of cantaloupe from the neighborhood co-op, the ripeness of old Mrs. Johnson's organic tomatoes, the beauty of the locally grown Azaleas, the Asters and the Peonies.

And oh so less beautiful and tranquil a Sunday stroll in the Farmer's Market would it be without all of the good people strapped with their .357 Magnums and their AR-15 Assault Rifles slung over their shoulders. Right?

Apparently, however, the two gun goons miscalculated in thinking that, like themselves, every American had conveniently and unconcernedly erased the memory of the 20 Sandy Hook Elementary toddlers with their brains and guts splattered all over their classrooms from not too long ago, and that it was just simply NRA business as usual.

They also miscalculated about this:

Milwaukee's police chief ridiculed the pair.

"In a post Aurora-Newtown environment, it's a reckless and irresponsible stunt to strut around in public with an assault-style weapon and think police should assume you're well-intentioned," Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said Thursday, referring to mass shooting incidents in Colorado and Connecticut.

"It's just absurd," Flynn said. "This has nothing to do with the Second Amendment. These characters and those who support them should be ashamed of themselves."

And this:

"It's taking the Second Amendment a little too far," one officer says.

The officers check the concealed-carry permits and run the serial numbers of the guns. One speaks with a prosecutor — most of the conversation is inaudible because of background noise — and eventually the men are released with their property.

One officer offers this parting comment: "I get what you guys are trying to do. ... But when you grow up a little bit and you're a parent and have kids at an event like this and you see someone walk through with guns strapped to their back, your first inclination is going to be, 'All right, what's this guy up to? Is my child going to be safe?'"

Branstrom, an Appleton truck mechanic, said he gets that argument, but said police just "provoked more fear and panic" the way the rolled up on him and Bauman.

"I'm still kind of shaken," he said. "I was one nervous twitch away from having a bullet put in me," he said.

"I was one nervous twitch away from having a bullet put in me," whined one of the gun goon guys.

It is supremely ironic that whining gun goon guy fails to comprehend the exact circumstances which led him to being a "nervous twitch away" from being some poor beat cop's target range poster. But fate, fickle as it is, saved whining gun goon guy, so that he may publicly flaunt his killing weapons another day, in defense of his very, very small penis.

Now - The Gadfly is pretty certain about one thing though -- that had whining gun goon guy's skin color been several shades darker and had he been wearing a hoodie, whining gun goon guy, instead of going on to sue the police (yes they are considering it - read further in to the article) for doing their fucking job, might instead be lying on a stainless steel gurney at the Appleton morgue, while his equally moronic friends and supporters wail mournfully and wonder what went wrong.

If you have read this far dear reader, you probably realize that The Gadfly is sick of these fucking gun goon guys. Sick and fucking tired of their vanity and their arrogance and their willful idiocy. And let this one thing be completely fucking clear -- The Gadfly is not anti-gun. The Gadfly is anti-stupidity-with-a-gun. Big and very clear goddamn difference.

So -- if someone has a coherent counterpoint as to why it's just peachy to just let any Tom, Dick and Dick walk around in public venues strapped with assault rifles and pistols, please have at it. The Gadfly's comments section is open and you can remain anonymous. Just be wary for what you wish for though. The Gadfly does not suffer fools and their foolishness lightly.